Various medical procedures require that one or more medical fluids be injected into a patient. For example, medical imaging procedures oftentimes involve the injection of contrast media into a patient, possibly along with saline and/or other fluids. Contrast media can highlight features that would otherwise be less distinguishable from nearby tissue to help a clinician diagnose and treat a patient's medical condition. A patient is typically injected with contrast media before or during an imaging procedure and then exposed to radiation or electromagnetic energy to generate an image of the patient's body.
When used, contrast media is usually injected into a patient by an automated injection system. The automated injection system may include a pump, syringe, or other fluid delivery device operatively connected to a catheter. The catheter is placed into a vein or artery of a patient. During operation, the fluid delivery device operates to pressurize the contrast media and to inject the media into the patient at a predetermined rate and volume.
Contrast media for an automated injection system can be supplied in a container sized to provide multiple doses of contrast media to multiple different patients or a container sized to provide a single dose of contrast media to a single patient. For example, a powered syringe injector may use a pre-filled syringe that is filled with fluid at one facility and then shipped to another facility (e.g., an imaging suit) where it is installed on the powered injector. In this case, the syringe is used for a single injection on a single patient. Any contrast media remaining in the syringe after this single injection cannot be used for another patient and is thereby wasted.
Alternatively, a powered syringe injector may receive an empty syringe (e.g., in an imaging suite) that is filled with fluid from a multi-dose container in preparation for subsequent injection into a patient. The syringe in this application may or may not still only be used for a single injection on a single patient. However, the multi-dose container supplying fluid to the syringe and tubing connecting the container to the syringe may be used to fill multiple syringes for multiple different patients. Ensuring that contaminants do not enter the fluid supplied by the multi-dose container between syringe fillings or during syringe filling may be beneficial for the safe and efficient operation of the automated injection system.